Toys A History of Toys - with Price Guide by Jack Tempest

Amongst the leading collectibles of today it’s the ‘oldies’ who have the strongest nostalgic recollections of the toys they used to play with in their childhood. The most elderly of the ‘oldies’ remember with pleasure, the earliest playthings of the 1920s and the 1930s; perhaps the 1940s. The Second World War deactivated the toy manufacturing industry, but afterwards when peace returned, the industry started up all over again. Both sides had stopped turning out toys and generally changed over to essential war work producing the more dangerous full-sized ‘playthings’ of the Tri-ang ‘Minic’ cable lorry, clockwork. 1950s. Guide: £150. military! Before the Second World War and the 1914-18 Great War, the contemporary youth of both sexes were generally playing with the first-class toys and dolls produced by the Germans. There were such Aerial roundabout from Germany, playthings made in the UK and other countries, but the Germans c1900. The carriages are whales certainly ruled in this particular business. They had cornered the - the riders sit inside them! world’s toy and doll markets through the quality, ingenuity, and Guide: £750. prices of their products. The French were renowned for their beautiful dolls and some of their tin toys, especially the novelty Made in England, 1970s Sutcliffe mechanical tinplate figural products of Fernand Martin of Paris. ‘Valiant’battleship. Guide: £120. The Japanese exported plenty of novelty toys and celluloid dolls, and although they were responsible for some excellent products, were mainly remembered for their cheaper productions, designed to German 1920s clockwork naval sell at low cost. There were some memorable British toys marketed destroyer. Guide: £1,200. by the Tri-ang Company and the associated earlier firm of Lines Brothers, plus the diecast manufacturing company of William Britain’s that was internationally noted for its toy soldiers. Britain’s invented ‘hollow-casting’ which proved economical both in manufacture and transport costs. Strangely there were one or two British firms who had their tin toys made for them in Germany and people believe they were British made. Frank Hornby started his Meccano business with the help of the Germany industry, indeed some of the clockwork Meccano motors carried the Märklin trademark! The first Hornby train was a German product by Bing, though it was clearly marked ‘Made in England’. Perhaps it was assembled here just as ‘English’ motor- bikes were assembled from German parts in Coventry and ‘English’ This 1950s battery-operated pianos were built up from German parts in London! ‘Circus Lion’ will stand and sit This first Hornby train was not marked so, but with the initials as you demand, roaring and ‘M.L.L.’, standing for ‘Meccano Limited Liverpool’. It was first clawing as it obeys! Guide: £250. offered for sale by Meccano in 1914 and then withdrawn with the outbreak that year of the Great War with Germany. The same toy 1920-30s tiny Teddy Bear by train and its Germanic coaches reappeared after the war pictured in Schuco of Germany. Guide: £200. the 1920s ‘Hornby Book of Trains’ with non-reversing clockwork mechanisms replacing the original reversible German motor of the prewar originals. We know little of this particular venture of Frank Hornby, and Hornby train enthusiasts prefer not to talk about it! The earliest German toys included magnificent huge model battle- ships and ocean liners, wonderful motor vehicles, and a range of novelty toys that realise thousands of pounds when they turn up nowadays in specialist auctions. These were the toys of the wealthy families. The working classes didn’t stand a chance in those days. Their toys had to be home-made by their parents or brothers and sisters. Wooden toys for the boys, rag-dolls and dolls-houses for the girls. In time, thanks to the development of industrial production and improved mass-production methods, playthings steadily Animated tinplate street vendor became more widely available. from Germany (1930s). Mickey When I ask fellow ‘oldies’ about their childhood memories the Swinging Mickey & Minnie Mouse Mouse is featured in the basket menfolk, almost all of them, recall the Meccano products, including toy from Japan (1930s). at the end of the string and adds the famous construction outfits, and the Hornby trains and Dinky value to the toy! Guide: £450. Guide: £500. ANTIQUES INFO - November/December 06 Toys toys that came from the famous Liverpool factory. The ‘Schuco’ toys from Germany are well recalled too, especially their famous Mercedes racing car which sold for just three shillings and sixpence up to the arrival of the Second World War in 1939. It came with removable wheels, changeable tyres, and a workable steering wheel. Every boy either had one or wanted one. This car returned after the war and is still available from the modern company that has taken over the ‘Schuco’ trademark from the old Schreyer & Co., the original manufacturer. The only change to the toy is its price! Rare Steiff black plush teddy The Germans made wonderful model railway engines and rolling stock, many bear, c1915, 16.75in. (mohair Three rare, early Bing clere- finding their way into the UK via stores like the long gone ‘Gamages of good, right paw pad worn, story roof bogie coaches, minor moth damage to other hand-painted in brown/cream London’ which imported toys from around the world and Germany in pads, tears to both legs) livery, luggage van with particular. Bassett-Lowke of Northampton was noted for its wonderful railway Gorringes, Lewes. Mar 03. sliding doors and fitted chair models. They made their own models and imported Bing and Märklin HP: £23,000. ABP: £27,053. and table, c1905-10, each examples from Germany. Quality model railways from the past are still 6.5in. Gorringes, Lewes. Mar popular, though continental and American types are, understandably, less 05. HP: £3,200. ABP: £3,764. popular. Collectors naturally prefer their railway models to be made in the style in liveries of their own country. Clockwork motors have been the most popular power source for all toys, from boats to motor vehicles, and aeroplanes to mechanical figures. Aeroplanes that Bing open four-seat Tourer, fly need to be lightweight, therefore clockwork mechanisms are used only in c1906, lithographed GBN floor-toy planes that can only taxi around and not leave the ground. Those that label attached, hand-enamelled, bright tangerine embossed, ‘Fly Off the Ground’ like the lightweight ‘FROG’ planes prefer to twirl their padded seats, wheels with props from the release of tightly twisted elastic. Toy boats run well on rubber tyres, clockwork mech- anism powers rear axle, 39cm. clockwork, some maybe on elastic, others on the energy from heated simple Early 20thC painted wood Sotheby’s, Billingshurst. Mar metal-tube water recycling engines as used in early Sutcliffe boats, made in doll’s house in the form of a 01. HP: £8,200. ABP: £9,645. England, or in those tiny cheap tin ‘pop-pop’ motor boats heated from a candle. double fronted villa, 21 x 15 x The bigger early boats were clockwork-powered or actually driven by live 31in high, with a selection of steam engines. Some motor vehicles had steam-power for propulsion at the home-made furniture. time some of the real automobiles were so driven. Live-steam trains were Canterbury Auction Galleries, Kent. Dec 03. HP: £3,100. popular, but not with mother when running indoors! In the early toy days ABP: £3,646. plugging into the electric mains was useless. Batteries were available and the Americans even had real electric cars running on the roads for a while. The problem was the very same as experienced today: the size and weight of the batteries needed. Even batteries for the larger toys then available were George II wood doll wearing restrictive for similar reasons. Only the model railways came off best because a Spitafields dusky pink brocaded silk robe with sack their metal tracks could be plugged into the mains and the current picked up back, real hair nailed wig, by the travelling locomotive just as is done today! 17in high. Clarke Gammon, The ‘oldies’ have plenty of nostalgic childhood memories, so have the younger Guildford. Dec 01. HP: ‘oldies’ born in the wake of the Second World War. They will look back on the £8,000. ABP: £9,410. Victorian style carved wood years around the 1950s and 1960s when Germany was losing its way in the toy rocking horse, with mane & manufacturing industry to the takeover of the world toy market by Japan, tail, dapple grey decoration, whose range of new toys suddenly began to flood the world. Their refreshing 44in wide. Clarke Gammon range of well made novelty toys filled the shops and included traditional style Wellers, Guildford. Jun 05. clockwork and friction-drive examples. There was a plus, too, in their turn to HP: £3,000. ABP: £3,528. flashlight battery-powered novelties which came as motor vehicles, trains, aeroplanes, and novelty human and animal figures, a series that could chatter, Rare 19thC boxed set of lead shriek, talk, light up with winking coloured lights, and even smoke! toys, entitled ‘Pleasure at the All these effects encouraged the production of sci-fi items, robots, rockets, and Seaside, Brighton’. Gorringes, Lewes. Mar 01. HP: £5,200. flying-saucers offering visual and sound effects. The smoke was real, electri- ABP: £6,116. cally generated by a heated wire in thin oil within an internal capsule. Thus a Scratch built steam yacht with single funnel and carvel motor car could issue real exhaust fumes and it allowed toy ships and railway built hull, 41in. Gorringes, locomotive funnels to smoke like the real things! Laughing clowns and jolly Lewes. Oct 00. HP: £2,800. bartenders had internally illuminated vinyl faces that changed colour as they ABP: £3,293. performed, smoke issuing from their ears as they appeared to take a swift swig of the hard-stuff from the glass they raised to their lips!

German Mickey & Minnie Mouse organ grinder, in litho- graphed tinplate, clockwork mechanism, probably by 1920s Marklin clockwork Distler, c1931, 15cm long. motorcyclist, dressed in Bristol Auction Rooms, period dress. Biddle & Webb, Bristol. Apr 02. HP: £3,200. Birmingham. May 03. HP: ABP: £3,764. £2,500. ABP: £2,940.

ANTIQUES INFO - November/December 06